Guidelines for Poetic Verses:#6 of 10
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# Oct 22, 2000 #
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Todays posting, part of the poetry series, deals with the
3 PHASES OF A SINNER REGAINING THEIR GOOD NAME
* Remaining alive
* Retaining ones spiritual status
* Being counted as a significant community member
OVERVIEW:
--------
RULE: We have frequently indicated that POETIC verses are
governed by the Rabbi Ishmael rule of CONTEXT. Very often poetic
verses REPEAT the same theme several times. In interpeting these
verses the following guiding principles are helpful:
GUIDELINES FOR INTERPRETING POETIC VERSES
-----------------------------------------
* First, find the overall UNIFYING principle
* Next, try and recognize the WORDS that YOU do KNOW
* Further try and find the SPECIAL NUANCES in the words you know
* Then infer the meanings of other words using PARALLEL STRUCTURE
* Try and find all SUBCATEGORIES of the UNIFYING theme
* Make a ONE TO ONE CORRESPONDENCE between the subcategories of
The unifying theme and repeated stanzas of the verse based on
the nuances you recognize in the repeated words.
In a nutshell whereas legal language is analytic, poetic language
is evocative The phrases don't define properties by themselves but
rather evoke an image. BUT THE PHRASES IN CONTEXT DO DEFINE A
PRECISE MEANING.
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VERSE: Dt33-06a
RASHIS COVERED: Dt33-06a Dt33-06b Dt33-06c
RULE: We have frequently indicated that POETIC verses are
governed by the Rabbi Ishmael rule of CONTEXT. Very often poetic
verses REPEAT the same theme several times. In interpeting these
verses the following guiding principles are helpful:
GUIDELINES FOR INTERPRETING POETIC VERSES
* First, find the overall UNIFYING principle
* Next, try and recognize the WORDS that YOU do KNOW
* Further try and find the SPECIAL NUANCES in the words you know
* Then infer the meanings of other words using PARALLEL STRUCTURE
* Try and find all SUBCATEGORIES of the UNIFYING theme
* Make a ONE TO ONE CORRESPONDENCE between the subcategories of
The unifying theme and repeated stanzas of the verse based on
the nuances you recognize in the repeated words.
THE TEXT OF THE VERSE: Dt33-06
>May Reuben Live
May he not die
May his people be counted<
Let us now apply the 6 categories of the guidelines to this verse
THE UNIFYING PRINCIPLE: Clearly the unifying principle is that
>Reuben should continue to exist<
THE WORDS: All >words< in the verse have a clear and known
meaning
SPECIAL NUANCES: It is important to emphasize that NONE of the
words in the verse have special nuances. Thus the phrase >May
Reuben Live< or >May he not die< do not have special nuances. Our
point here is that if Rashi does derive special nuances then it
was not the >meanings< of the words that suggested these nuances
but rather the >overall structure of the verse<
THE PARALLEL STRUCURE: In this particular verse there are 3
>verbs< which clearly define 3 phrases (which are presented in
the table below).
THE SUBCATEGORIES OF CONTINUING EXISTENCE: Rashi suggests that
the subcategories of continuing existence are as follows
{LIST1}The 3 subcategories of >continuing existence<
====================================================
* existing physically
* existing spiritually (having a spiritual component)
* being recognized as an equal (ie being counted)
THE ONE-TO-ONE CORRESPONDENCE:
{LIST2}The 1-1 correspondence between the 3 verse phrases
in Dt33-06 and the categories of continuing existence*1
========================================================
VERSE Category of >continuing existence<
==================== ==================================
May Reuben live May he >physically< exist
May Reuben not die*2 May he have a >spiritual< component
may he have number may he be >counted< & recognized
NOTES
*1 I think it clear that the individual words >live< or >die<
do >NOT< correspond to the concepts of >physical< and >spiritual<
existence. Rather what motivated Rashi to make this
correspondence is the >principle of climax< which demands that 3
or more phrases be interpreted in a climatic manner. It is this
principle, CLIMAX, which creates the correspondence and therefore
it is a mistake to read the correspondence into the meanings of
the words
*2 Actually the verse says >May Reuben live AND not die< To
emphasize the parellelism we have translated this
as >May Reuben live and May Reuben not die<
RULE USED: EXAMPLE9
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